Guess who’s helping to fund the Governor’s ball?

Today’s Rutland Herald has an AP piece by Dave Gram, which refers to Vermont Yankee as a “platinum sponsor” of the Inaugural Ball.  

Vermont Yankee Spokestooge Rob Williams claimed it was no different from a donation to the Vermont Foodbank.  

This, of course, begs the question: why didn’t VY just donate $5,000 to the Vermont Foodbank directly instead.  Wouldn’t that have saved on administrative costs?  Rep Nease had the same question, quoted in the article as saying “I just think the appearance of the governor accepting $5,000 from Entergy is not OK.  They… could have given to the Foodbank directly.”

So really, what’s the big deal.  It’s not as though Vermont Yankee is in a major battle for its continuing existence, one in which the Governor is a major player of some sort.  I mean, obviously, if that were the case, we’d be in a whole different situation.

Right?

Right?

[With a slightly more hopeful update as of Saturday evening — NanuqFC]

I had occasion to head over to the DNC website today. I encourage all those good folks who would come to the aid of their party to check it out.

The link leads to video, posted today, of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Obama/Emanuel’s prize pick to replace Vermont’s former Governor Howard Dean as the DNC Chairman (hey, both states start with “V,” isn’t that enough?).

Kaine spends almost 27 minutes answering selected questions sent via email.

First up: a boomer who converted from R to D because of Obama and wants reassurance that Democrats won’t forget all those Obamacans. Kaine blah blahs about how Obama won, especially in Virginia, by appealing to Independents and “moderate” Republicans (never mind the base).

Next a military wife and mom about healthcare benefits for vets and their families. Kaine talks about being commander in Chief of the Virginia National Guard (echoes of Palin, anyone?), and Gen. Shinseki as head of the VA.

If you’re keeping score, that’s two conservative questions and two conservative answers.

More — and the real disappointment — on the flip.

Third comes a question (again) about appealing to Independents and R’s, and “creating a culture of listening.” The listening part is what Kaine responds to. Not bad, but nothing to hang your hat on.

The next two questions ask about youth outreach and what the Democrats are going to do about the the economy. Again, not too bad, although the outreach answer is pretty Virginia-centric before spreading over to Obamaland, and the economy is a policy issue that will be decided by Congress and the President, not by the Chairman of the DNC.

Here’s the thing that caught my ear and generated not unexpected waves of disappointment in the old aural canal:

Kaine reads a question [the sixth] from an activist in “red state Texas” about the Party’s (read Kaine’s) plans for the future of the 50-state strategy. Kaine admits that a lot of the questions he got were concerned with the future of the 50-state strategy, and this is just the one he picked to represent them all. In answer, he rehearses how he got the governorship thanks to the strategy. (We’re now halfway through the video). Results, he says, speak for themselves. But it’s not good enough to do just what you did yesterday. He will, he says, sit down and analyze what’s the best thing for the future of the party and says that whatever that best thing is, it will include different strategies for different states.

As far as I can see, Kaine’s answer to the hottest question there is among the party’s base — which he doesn’t even address until halfway through this video — amounts to a lot of blah blah and no commitment to DNC funding for state parties any time soon. And without that funding, we here in Vermont, home of the faintly praised Howard Dean, have no chance of hiring a staff or fielding a credible team next year in 2010. Sounds to me like we’re being set adrift to sink or swim on our own. All that matters to Kaine and the DNC is the presidential contest, not the lower tier races that make up the farm teams for Congress and build support within a state for a Democratic majority.

The VDP has learned what having actual staff is like through the 50-state strategy, also known as the State Partnership Program. Liz Saxe (now working as an assistant to House Speaker Shap Smith) did a great job as communications director, keeping grass roots activists up on issues and media coverage across the state. Other staffers — including Field Director Gretchen Kreusi — did more-or-less credible jobs. And now, just when the VDP is trying to hire a new director (the decision is made with Kristina Althoff’s withdrawal, a case of her jumping before being pushed; just waiting for the negotiations with the new guy), imagine that conversation: We can offer you below-average salary for a state party executive director, and btw, you have no staff, and if you want staff, you have to raise the money on your own to hire them.

The DNC is meeting in Washington the day after the Inauguration.

It might be logical, if our DNC committeeman cared about the entire VDP instead of simply protecting his candidate, to think that perhaps Chuck Ross might fight for 50-state funding, or that accountable-only-to-herself (thanks to her large contributions to campaigns) DNC Committeewoman Billie Gosh might raise the point and put some energy into it. But I suspect we’d have people passing out or turning Democratic chokehold blue holding their breath waiting for that to happen.

[Update: Word is that VDP Vice Chair Judy Bevans will stay in DC in order to attend the DNC meeting, and specifically to urge the renewal of the State Partnership Program as soon as possible. You go, girl! The state Chair seems to be, as usual, absent from any real work on behalf of the party.]

NanuqFC

In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. – George Orwell

Per Daily Kos:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 1/12-14. Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)

Leahy (D) 58

Douglas (R) 36

Republican Gov. Jim Douglas is decently popular at 52-41, which he’d have to be to continue winning gubernatorial races in the most Democratic state in the union. Yet even he is no match for Sen. Patrick Leahy, who has an extremely high 63-33 favorability rating.

Not that this comes as any surprise, but Leahy is golden for 2010. Douglas will stick to the governor’s mansion.

Full crosstabs at Markos’ diary (linked above)

Here’s a sampling of some of the more noteworthy items that have streamed into my rss blog feeds lately:

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee

The PCCC is a new PAC dedicated to helping bold progressive candidates run first-class campaigns and win.

It is led by former MoveOn staff, union organizers, top staff from Darcy Burner and Tom Perriello’s 2008 House campaigns, and the co-inventor of RSS and Reddit.

Vermont News Guy (Jon Margolis)

Margolis was the national political correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and is an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Vermont. I first saw him recently on VT This Week and he blew me away. As you may have read here on GMD, he has a new blog about VT politics that is a must read.

He’s a straight shooter:

The Democrats, then, are starting out a lot earlier and with many more possible candidates than they did two years ago, when at first nobody would run, and then finally nobody did run, though in this case nobody was also known as Gaye Symington. No reflection on her character or intelligence; she was just one of the worst statewide candidates ever. Not just in Vermont ever, either. In the whole country ever.

…

And digs where we would:

This crop looks better, though it’s hard to say which one would be strongest or how the field would shape up. Spaulding seems to be, in his own words “slightly more centrist” than the others, perhaps meaning he’d be most likely to win the general election if he could win the primary, in which liberal voters dominate.

But Racine indicated that he, too would try to appeal to centrist voters.

“I lost my race in the middle,” he said. “There are a lot of folks out there sort of in the middle.”

more below…

I’m sure many of you read The Prog Blog, even if some aren’t eager to admit it! C’mon, we can admit that they often say exactly what we wish our folks would say, and what we secretly hope they really mean even though they never say it quite exactly. Ya know?

Sometimes they just nail the argument on the head, like this post detailing the impact of Douglas’s proposals:

Douglas’s Proposed Tax Increase by Martha Abbott

The following examples illustrate the effect that repeal of Act 60 and Act 68 would have on four average Vermont households:  All four are couples who have household incomes from $46,500 to $81,700 and whose homes are assessed from $200,000 – $258,000, 2 in urban towns and two in rural towns.

A couple with a household income of $81,700 in Burl owning a $258,000 house would rise by $860 (1% of household income)

A couple with a household income of $46,500 in Lincoln owning a $200,000 house would rise by $2047 (4.4% of household income)

A couple with a household income of $75,800 in Richmond, owning a $218,000 house would rise by $1,319   (1.7%)

A couple with a household income of $52,000 in Winooski owning $220,000 house would rise by $1297 (2.5%)

The Left Coaster is where I go when I want to feel like a moderate. Or maybe a conservative. If I post there, it’s usually to blast someone who has just insulted me or anyone who would possibly be so Neanderthal as to take an extremely stupid position like mine, like saying that we should wait to see what Obama actually does in office instead of starting an impeachment hearing based on rumors of moderate appointees.

It’s fun!

They do have some good thoughts mixed in though, and the …ummm, challenging environment leads in some cases to well-supported arguments:

What Kind of Stimulus Projects Should Be Considered?

My favorite program would be to fund Green Jobs to insulate, repair and make more energy efficient homes for people in our cities, our rural communities and our suburbs. Not only would this provide jobs for lots of people, it would be a great boon for those citizens who are struggling to pay their bills. As California has shown, programs that produce energy efficiency pay off for decades and make it easier for us to address global warming.

Joseph Stiglitz also thinks there could be a lot more bang-for-the-buck if the focus was just making sure states didn’t have to layoff personnel or shutdown their programs. After all, it’s in the middle of recessions that public services become more important.

Matthew Yglesias is one of those young, opinionated, liberal, uppity bloggers that the right loves to hate. I picture him as a recent college grad with time on his hands and nothing better to do with it than all the reading, research and blogging that I would do if I didn’t have to, you know, take care of kids and work for a living and all that.

In The Costs of Ideological Correctness, he points out the lengths that politicians will go to to avoid the health care plan that makes the most sense:

…the Commonwealth Fund has a write-up of some Lewin Group analyses of different congressional health care bills.

(coverage chart)

Pete Stark’s bill, the most left-wing of the lot (it’s sort of a “Medicare for many more” proposal) covers the most people.

And here’s their impact on health care costs:

(savings chart)

Stark’s is the best again. And yet there’s no chance whatsoever that we’ll actually do this because his plan, though the most practical, is also the most left-wing. Far too left-wing for the United States of America.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

“They’re calling it ‘the miracle on the Hudson’“, blares this morning’s top of the fold, front page, Times Argus headline.

But it wasn’t a miracle at all.

It was an extremely well prepared crew, an orderly set of passengers and a trained and talented pilot who were all aided by some good luck in the weather.

I’m referring, of course, to the Airbus that lost both engines shortly after takeoff at Laguardia Airport in NYC. Apparently the plane and a flock of birds tried occupying the same point at the same time, and the birds and jet engines paid the ultimate price resulting in a forced landing on the Hudson River just off Manhattan Island.

Farther back, on page 5, of this morning’s TA we find out that this ‘miracle’ was nothing short of hard work, training, practice and knowledge.

In Hudson River hero is ex-Air Force Pilot (again with the non-sequitors … there is very little connection to his being an Air Force pilot here) we find that the pilot, Mr. Sullenberger, has been flying for US Airways since 1980, aided in several National Transportation Safety accident investigations and had even “been studying the psychology of keeping airline crews functioning even in the face of crisis.”

Unfortunately the headlines decided to pay homage to two of our most prevalent contemporary public memes: god and the military.

But at least the articles let you know what the headlines should have been: They call it competence on the Hudson and Hudson River hero did so well because he worked hard to be that good.

No religion or military necessary … no miracles … just good old fashioned hard work.

I refused to watch Bush's speech last night, but I just heard the NPR story about it. According to NPR, Bush delivered his speech to “200 friends and supporters”.

If you're like me I'm sure you had the same reaction I did: “Bush has 200 friends and supporters?”

( – promoted by odum)

“As we strive to protect that which is so special about Vermont” – Gov. Jim Douglas  

It is a little hard not to get the idea that Governor Douglas is doing a little gutting with his cutting. He suggests a good dose of trust and strong penalties for non-compliance. But there is no mistaking the message sent when the first of eight layoffs starts at ANR with the state’s director of enforcement. Talk about a thin veil of cover.

The administration of Gov. Jim Douglas this week laid off the state’s director of environmental enforcement and eliminated his job, the first of eight layoffs expected at the Agency of Natural Resources this month. In addition, a retirement last month reduced the number of environmental enforcement field investigators to seven. The retiree will not be replaced in the near future.

Businesses will not be let off the hook from environmental protection. Non-compliance will bring costly penalties, motivating developers to complete legally and environmentally sound projects. Furthermore, self-certification will allow agency staff to spend more time in the field ensuring compliance, rather than micro managing proposed permits upfront.

“The timing and nature of this is very odd in light of the governor’s claim that his permit-reform effort would include an enhanced focus on enforcement.”said Anthony Iarrapino, a lawyer at the Conservation Law Foundation

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

http://www.vermont.gov/portal/…

The hack attack on Soapblox last week, that was a minor, but could have been a major disaster, has really made the news. It's covered in this week's New Yorker:

Late last Tuesday night, Pam Spaulding tried to post an entry on her blog, Pam’s House Blend, from her home in Durham, North Carolina. There was a technical glitch, and she couldn’t publish her post. To find the source of the problem, Spaulding decided to go to the Web site for SoapBlox, a small company in Denver that administers the sites for more than a hundred liberal blogs around the country, including Pam’s House Blend, which focusses on gay and lesbian issues.

Follow the link to read the rest.

People have been speculating about whether Eric Holder would try to equivocate, keep his options open, or otherwise do something to duck the question when he was asked the inevitable, but he did not.

Watch the rest of it here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdAt1GcIs6E

H/t to Beau Freidlander at Air America Radio for this observation/post. Get a load of this stuff.

Earlier today during Eric Holder’s AG confirmation hearing, Democratic Senator Herb Kohl (WI) asked an old white man question of the African American nominee: Would Holder commit to defeating Obama “as badly as he can” if the two meet up for a little one-on-one on the basketball court.

Eric Holder: “Senator Kohl, Senator Kohl. Um, he’s 10 years younger than me. He plays a lot more frequently than I do. Um, having said that, I got a New York City game. I come from the city that produced Connie Hawkins, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Nate “Tiny” Archibald; I learned how to play ball at PS 127 in Queens. If you give me a little time, a little space to get back in shape, I think I could hang with him. I don’t think I’m ever going to be in a position to beat him nor do I think that would be a wise thing to do.”

Senator Leahy responds:

I’ve been here 34 years in these hearings and that’s the first time that question’s been asked.”

Perhaps another response to Kohl would be “You got Tom Naylor?”